Kohima, June 26 (IANS): Amid the vote boycott call given by the influential Eastern Nagaland People's Organisation (ENPO), over 80 per cent of the 2.76 lakh voters exercised their franchise to decide the fates of 523 candidates in three municipal councils and 36 town councils in Nagaland on Wednesday.
The 523 candidates include 198 women nominees who are contesting the civic polls being held after a gap of 20 years.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) T. John Longkumer said that no one cast their vote in six eastern Nagaland districts due to the vote boycott call.
“Earlier, 79 candidates from these six districts filed their nominations, but they later withdrew their candidatures. No candidate is contesting in the town councils in eastern Nagaland, where ENPO gave a vote boycott call in support of their demand for Frontier Nagaland Territory,” Longkumer, the former DGP of Nagaland, told IANS.
He also said that no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state as the voting was held smoothly.
The SEC said that a total of 2,76,229 voters, including 1,40,167 women, were eligible to exercise their franchise in the urban local body (ULB) polls.
Of the total of 418 wards in the urban civic bodies, 142 wards are reserved for women.
Significantly, Wednesday’s local body polls were the first-ever municipal elections held in the state with 33 per cent reservation for women.
The ULB polls were delayed by around 20 years as various tribal bodies and civil society organisations were against the reservation for women.
After hectic consultations with different Naga organisations and civil society groups, the state Assembly in November last year passed the Nagaland Municipal Bill 2023 with 33 per cent reservation for women.
The SEC earlier served a show cause notice to the ENPO, the apex body of seven backward Naga tribes in eastern Nagaland which urged people to abstain from participating in the civic polls to press for its statehood demand.
The people in the six districts, which have over four lakh voters, also remained indoors during the Lok Sabha polls on April 19, responding to the ENPO's call.
Since 2010, the ENPO has been demanding a separate Frontier Nagaland Territory, or a separate state, comprising six eastern Nagaland districts -- Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator, and Tuensang, inhabited by seven backward tribes -- Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Tikhir, Sangtam, and Yimkhiung.